Does America still have the capacity to make good on the promise to its young? Phillip Morris

View full sizeDavid Goldman, Associated PressVoters are getting a lot of rhetoric but no real assurances from Mitt Romney, left, and Barack Obama on creating jobs.

It's Tuesday afternoon and another email solicitation from President Barack Obama has just arrived. This one has a slight hint of desperation. The campaign is running out of time, and, apparently, there is never enough cash.

I don't remember when the first email from the president, or "Barack," as he always signs the notes, landed in my box. But they've been coming nonstop for months. The tone of the messages – which are sponsored by a Chicago group called Obama for America -- have gone from strident to urgent.

"Morris, I don't want to lose this election," he wrote yesterday.

"Not because of what losing would mean for me – Michelle and I will be fine no matter what happens."

"But because of what it would mean for our country and middle-class families."

"I'm not willing to watch the progress you and I worked so hard to achieve be undone."

"Time is running out to make an impact – please don't wait any longer. Donate $5 or more today."

This email is mildly amusing. The president has no idea who I am. Neither do his people. Otherwise they wouldn't waste their time contacting me on social media. Other than my undivided attention, editorial commentary and my vote, I don't give anything to candidates for office. It's one of the ways I keep my political independence.

But as we roll toward another presidential election, I'm frustrated by the lack of straight talk from either of these well-financed candidates who would lead America – straight talk that is conspicuously absent despite the blizzard of other people's cash being spent to buy the White House.

One particular question continues to trouble me. It's a question that the candidates have yet to provide a satisfactory answer to in their emails, their non-stop advertisements and just-concluded debates.

Does America still have the capacity to make good on its promise to its young?

The question was put directly to the candidates during the second presidential debate, when a 20-year-old college student named Jeremy Epstein asked the following:

"All I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?"

It was a somber question. It was a question that spoke to the fears of an emerging generation. It was a question couched in pessimism exhibited by so many young Americans, people who pay whopping sums for a university experience but increasingly expect less of a return on that investment.

Neither man answered the question in way that reassured Jeremy. You could tell by the look on his face.

Both candidates spoke of the need to make college more affordable. That bit of boilerplate is a staple of the election cycle. It's an easy sound byte.

In a bit of blatant pandering, Romney also went as far as to assure Jeremy that a job would be waiting for him if he were to be elected president.

Obama, for his part, talked about redirecting money spent on war efforts to rebuild public infrastructure and schools. He also suggested that keeping a continued focus on investing in solar, wind, biofuels and energy-efficient cars would work to create jobs a decade or two from now.

That's fine rhetoric as far as it goes.

But in 2032 Jeremy will be 40. And Obama and Romney, if they survive, will both be old men.

What Jeremy desperately needed to hear the evening of Oct. 16 was an honest pep talk mixed with a plan for real jobs creation -- now. He needed to hear that the American entrepreneurial spirit, the American grit, the American drive to succeed against all challenges remain as strong and relevant today as they ever have.

He needed one of the men to rebuke a growing sense of pessimism among our youth while speaking clearly to plans that will propel America forward now – not years in the future.

Neither effectively did.

That's why a report released by the Pew Research Center on Monday is no surprise. It shows that young Americans increasingly worry that they will not be able to afford to retire.

About 49 percent of Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 said they have little or no confidence that they will have enough money for retirement, which is more than double the number of people in the same age group who said that three years ago.

So here's a snapshot of where America stands two weeks from an election:

The very young fear that they will not find jobs capable of sustaining themselves and a family.

Those who have already started families fear that they are doomed to provide a lower standard of living and that they will never be able to retire.

Those who have already retired worry that they will outlive their retirement income.

So how do you vote rationally based on such daunting fear?

I wish I knew the answer to that.

These men have plans to restore America. How do we know? Because they say so.

But they're not making it easy, as we are forced to continue to decipher a campaign of sound bites, attacks, – and email -- to see which man has a plan worth risking four years in the life of a nation.

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